SolidWorks Simulation Packages

Product Engineers can efficiently evaluate structural product performance under a wide range of physical scenarios using the powerful virtual testing environment of SolidWorks Simulation Professional. Fully embedded with SolidWorks 3D CAD, SolidWorks Simulation Professional enables engineers to determine product mechanical resistance, product durability, natural frequencies, and test heat transfer and buckling instabilities. Pressure vessel analysis and complex loading is also supported. You can optimize products for weight, vibration, or instability based on a range of physical and geometrical parameters. With tight integration and a consistent user interface across SolidWorks solutions, you can use the powerful capabilities of SolidWorks Simulation Professional early in the design process to maximize product quality and reduce costs. SolidWorks Simulation solutions include: Thermal Fluid Analysis Nonlinear Analysis Structural Optimization Finite Element Analysis Motion Analysis Linear Stress Analysis Fatigue Analysis Vibration Analysis Thermal Analysis Structural Analysis

Vibration Analysis
Uncover potential issues early and make adjustments during design by conducting vibration analysis with SolidWorks Simulation. You can identify trouble spots that could cause problems (such as, resonance, fatigue, and assembly techniques) and avoid costly rework and delays during the prototype phase. SolidWorks Simulation provides detailed vibration data through frequency analysis and dynamic analysis to ensure product performance and safety. Vibration analysis is an important consideration when an applied load is not constant (static), inducing unstable modes of vibration (resonance) which result in a shortened service life and cause unexpected failures. Vibration Analysis Overview The vibrations your product may experience can reduce performance, shorten product life, or even cause a catastrophic failure. The effects of vibrations, which are simply time-varying or transient loads on your product, are difficult to predict:

Vibration loads can excite dynamic responses in a structure resulting in high dynamic stresses. Ignoring dynamic stresses could lead you to assume that a product or structure has a higher factor of safety (FoS) than it actually does.

Frequency Analysis
Quickly and efficiently investigate the natural frequencies of a designwith and without loads and boundary conditionswith easy-to-use SolidWorks Simulation. Ensure that the natural modes of vibration are away from environmental forcing frequencies, indicating that the design will meet the required service life. Tightly integrated with SolidWorks CAD, frequency analysis using SolidWorks Simulation can be a regular part of your design process, reducing the need for costly prototypes, eliminating rework and delays, and saving time and development costs. Frequency Analysis Overview Understanding the natural frequency is important in predicting possible failure modes or the types of analysis required to best understand performance. Every design has its preferred frequencies of

vibration, called resonant frequencies, and each such frequency is characterized by a specific shape (or mode) of vibration. Frequency analysis with SolidWorks Simulation uses an Eigen value approach to determine the natural modes of vibration for any geometry. If a designs natural modes and its expected service vibration environment are closely matched, a harmonic resonance may occur and lead to excessive loads which will result in failure. By understanding the designs natural modes of vibration, you can carry out preventative measures, such as changes in material, component sections, mass dampers, and so forth, so that component natural frequencies do not coincide with the frequency of the loading environment. This results in a design that would not only perform as desired, but also have a longer service life. To push the natural frequency of a design out of the critical range, you can:

Change geometry Change materials (resonant frequencies are directly proportional to the materials [Youngs (elastic) modulus] Change the characteristics of the shock isolators Strategically place mass elements

Dynamic Analysis
Dynamic analysis using SolidWorks Simulation enables designers and engineers to quickly and efficiently determine the impact of time varying loads on the structural response of their product design to ensure performance, quality, and safety. Tightly integrated with SolidWorks CAD, dynamic analysis using SolidWorks Simulation can be a regular part of your design process, reducing the need for costly prototypes, eliminating rework and delays, and saving time and development costs. Dynamic Analysis Overview Dynamic analysis can incorporate frequency, impact, and drop tests. The primary unknown in a dynamic analysis is component displacement over time, but with this calculated, stresses, velocities, and accelerations can also be determined together with the natural modes of vibration. SolidWorks Simulation uses one of two methods for dynamic analysis:

Linear modal analysis determines the natural modes of vibration and then the displacements, stresses, strains, velocities, and accelerations. Nonlinear dynamic analysis calculates the displacement field at every time step, given the applied loads and initial component velocities. From this field, the nonlinear stresses, strains, velocities, and accelerations are calculated.

Finite Element Analysis

Efficiently optimize and validate each design step using fast-solving, CAD integrated SolidWorks Simulation to ensure quality, performance, and safety. Tightly integrated with SolidWorks CAD, SolidWorks Simulation solutions and capabilities can be a regular part of your design processreducing the need for costly prototypes, eliminating rework and delays, and saving time and development costs. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) Overview SolidWorks Simulation uses the displacement formulation of the finite element method to calculate component displacements, strains, and stresses under internal and external loads. The geometry under analysis is discretized using tetrahedral (3D), triangular (2D), and beam elements, and solved by either a direct sparse or iterative solver. SolidWorks Simulation can use either an h or p adaptive element type, providing a great advantage to designers and engineers as the adaptive method ensures that the solution has converged. Integrated with SolidWorks 3D CAD, finite element analysis using SolidWorks Simulation knows the exact geometry during the meshing process. And the more accurately the mesh matches the product geometry, the more accurate the analysis results will be. The majority of FEA calculations involve metallic components, just as the majority of industrial components are made of metal. The analysis of metal components can be carried out by either linear or nonlinear stress analysis. Which analysis approach you use depends upon how far you want to push the design:

If you want to ensure the geometry remains in the linear elastic range (that is, once the load is removed, the component returns to its original shape), then linear stress analysis may be applied, as long as the rotations and displacements are small relative to the geometry. For such an analysis, factor of safety (FoS) is a common design goal. Evaluate the effects of post-yield load cycling on the geometry, a nonlinear stress analysis should be carried out. In this case, the impact of strain hardening on the residual stresses and permanent set (deformation) is of most interest.

The analysis of nonmetallic components (such as, plastic or rubber parts) should be carried out using nonlinear stress analysis methods (link to SolidWorks Nonlinear Stress Analysis capability page), due to their complex load deformation relationship. SolidWorks Simulation uses FEA methods to calculate the displacements and stresses in your product due to operational loads such as:

Forces Pressures Accelerations Temperatures Contact between components

Loads can be imported from thermal, flow, and motion Simulation studies to perform multiphysics analysis

Simulation
Analysis Background SolidWorks Simulation Reference Linear Static Analysis Linear Static Analysis Definition of Basic Quantities Performing Static Analysis Input for Linear Static Analysis Output of Linear Static Analysis Thermal Stress Analysis Frequency Analysis Frequency Analysis Performing Frequency Analysis Thermal Effects for Frequency Studies Rigid Body Modes Output of Frequency Analysis Dynamic Analysis Linear Static Versus Linear Dynamic Analysis Dynamic Loads Damping Effects Modal Time History Analysis Analysis Procedure - Modal Time History Harmonic Analysis Analysis Procedure - Harmonic Random Vibration Analysis Definitions for Random Vibration Analysis Analysis Procedure - Random Vibration Performing Linear Dynamic Analysis Loads and Result Options for Dynamic Analysis Solution Accuracy for Dynamic Analysis Response Spectrum Analysis Analysis Procedure - Response Spectrum Analysis Mode Combination Techniques Performing a Response Spectrum Analysis Response Spectrum Analysis Options